In the eyes of many top San Francisco chefs, the food scene on the Peninsula has been in something of a time warp, dotted with chain restaurants, run-of-the-mill Continental fare and little ethnic spots that have gone in and out of business.

But suddenly, trendy restaurateurs - from the folks behind Delfina and Pizzeria Delfina to the owners of Tacolicious - have noticed the perceived dearth of dining options and are opening restaurants south of the city.

"I haven't seen a fresh fava bean on any menu in the area," said Craig Stoll, who with his wife, Anne, plans to open a third Pizzeria Delfina outside San Francisco in Burlingame. "We just haven't seen a lot of what's common in San Francisco - a commitment to product, menus driven by farmers' markets and actual cooking instead of assembling food - on the Peninsula."

Just as in 2009, when restaurateurs began flocking to Oakland looking for new frontiers, there now seems to be a similar move to the Peninsula and South Bay. It's partly because San Francisco, with its complicated city ordinances and higher minimum wage - $10.55 an hour, as opposed to $8 elsewhere in the state - has become a tough town in which to do business. But mostly it's because restaurant opportunists see the region, with its Silicon Valley money and young, upwardly mobile and worldly population - a demographic that has stayed constant since 2000 - as a sure bet.

Burlingame Avenue

Even though the Stolls weren't looking for a new restaurant, the chance to open in a 2,600-square-foot space on Burlingame Avenue was too good to pass up, Craig Stoll said. For years, he said, his San Francisco restaurants had Peninsula diners begging him to head south.

It's not as if the area hasn't always had a scattering of fashionable restaurants. Spago and Stars operated in Palo Alto for a time before both restaurants went out of business. Evvia, the precursor to Kokkari, a popular modern Greek restaurant in San Francisco, still serves Hellenic cuisine on Emerson Street in Palo Alto. Manresa in Los Gatos has earned a four-star top rating by The Chronicle and has two Michelin stars.

But many chefs in San Francisco think the area is still underserved, given its sophisticated demographic. So they're moving in at a fast and furious pace.

Among the new spots: The Sea by Alexander's Steak House, a seafood spin-off of its San Francisco and Cupertino restaurants, has taken over the old Trader Vic's space in Palo Alto, and Katsu, a high-end Japanese restaurant, has opened in Los Gatos.

More moderately priced restaurants also are scheduled to open throughout the year.

Improved market

"These are intelligent, sophisticated, food-savvy people living here," said Frank Klein, owner of FK Restaurant & Hospitality, a consulting firm that Klein started in San Francisco but moved to Palo Alto to be closer to his home. "They always have been. But 10 years, even five years ago, I wouldn't have opened a restaurant here."

Klein recently opened Roastshop, a sandwich place that makes its own pastrami and corned beef, in downtown Palo Alto, and operates Asian Box take-out restaurants - one in Palo Alto, one in Mountain View and one scheduled to open in Burlingame in April. Until recently, though, he said, rents were too high on University Avenue in Palo Alto and Castro Street in Mountain View, the biggest restaurant streets.

"It was just prohibitive," he said. "A place I would've paid $5,500 to $6,500 a month (for) in San Francisco went for $14,500 a month on University Avenue. No experienced restaurateur would pay that kind of overhead in the Bay Area. So what you were seeing were inexperienced restaurateurs going in and then going out of business within two years."

More spaces have become available since the economic downturn, and prices have become more reasonable, he said. And for him, San Francisco has become too difficult a city in which to do business.

"I would rather moderately overpay for rents in other areas than do business in the city of San Francisco because of the regulations, higher costs and all the documentation standards," he said. "And, I think that there is an attitude in San Francisco government to take advantage of restaurateurs."

A no-brainer

Joe Hargrave, who has two Tacolicious restaurants in the city, said he has no problem navigating San Francisco's permit process, and, dollar for dollar, he's paying the same in San Francisco as he would on the Peninsula. But a move to Palo Alto, the location for his third Tacolicious, scheduled to open in fewer than 20 days, was a no-brainer.

"I don't know that my concept (a designer taqueria) would work in the 'burbs," he said. "But Palo Alto is a very self-sufficient, bustling, high-tech community. It's not as hipster or cutting-edge as San Francisco, but the people here are just as creative, elegant and well-traveled. I'm my customer, and down here there are a bunch of me's walking around."

Hargrave said he toyed with opening another location in Oakland, but just didn't see the same markets there that he has in the Marina and Mission districts.

"Valencia and Chestnut streets may seem very different," he said. "But for the sake of my restaurants, they're similar - lots of young people walking around who like good food. I think it will be the same in Palo Alto."